# Fiction in research: The case of education fiction **Author:** Stefan Hrastinski **Published:** 15 May 2025 (online; November 2025 journal issue) **Length:** 15 pages (reading time unavailable) ## In Summary Stefan Hrastinski examines fiction as a research method, distinguishing _informed fiction_, developed through empirical evidence, literature or workshops, from _speculative fiction_, which allows greater imaginative freedom. Drawing on examples from educational research, he considers how researchers and participants can use fictional narratives to explore alternative futures, question assumptions and stimulate debate. The article also challenges conventional criteria for research quality, arguing that speculative work should be evaluated partly through its capacity to provoke reflection and imagine radically different possibilities. **Source:** [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14782103251343331](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14782103251343331) ## What might this mean for us? Could Electric Dreams use fiction to connect historical objects, contemporary experiences and imagined educational futures? The distinction between informed and speculative fiction offers a framework for developing workshop activities grounded in research without restricting imagination. How might participants' stories reveal competing assumptions about technology, agency and creative education, and become material for collective enquiry? ## Links in this reading - [Near Future Teaching: Practice, Policy and Digital Education Futures, Bayne and Gallagher](https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103211026446) - [Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Robots on Higher Education Through Literature-Based Design Fictions, Cox](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00237-8) - [Criteria of Quality in Fiction-Based Research, Cox and colleagues](https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2087603) - [Higher Education for Good, Open Book Publishers](https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0363) - [Imagining Education Futures: Researchers as Fiction Authors, Hrastinski and Jandrić](https://link.springer.com/search?query=Imagining+education+futures+researchers+as+fiction+authors)